In both Unites States and the United Kingdom, separate studies have indicated that about a third of all food purchased is wasted. At the household level, the largest contributor (>20%) to this food waste is fruits and vegetables. The most common reason given for this disposal was that the fruits and vegetables were moldy or slimy. This invention is aimed at improving the situation by enabling an improved food storage method.
Both inside and outside refrigerators, flexible storage bags are commonly used by consumers to store food. Plastic bags are available to the public in many stores and are most usually sold by the box. A variety of designs for sealable plastic bags have been contemplated, but the most common seals are interlocking slide devices (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,558,367; 4,186,786). In 1957, a 5th grader name Robert Lejeune won a National Science Fair competition by demonstrating that sealable pouches, similar to Ziploc™ bags and sold as pencil cases at the time, retarded food spoilage in some cases. This present invention also results from a Science Fair project, this time demonstrating a new bag design that prevents mold growth.
With food and many other items negatively impacted by storage in oxygen, prolonged useful life would be possible if the presence of air were avoided. For this purpose, vacuum storage bags (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,883,665, 7,290,660) and associated equipment for sealing these bags are sold. However, commercial devices for vacuum sealing in the home are fairly expensive and take up space. Further, residual air remaining in bags can negatively impact storage results. Also, the vacuum associated with remaining spaces between food provides a driving force to encourage air to enter through small leaks. Finally, vacuum storage is less desirable for food that is readily deformable under pressure. For example, raspberries may become in large part juice due to pressure exerted upon them.
Another approach to prolong food storage is removal of just oxygen. For this purpose, commercial oxygen absorption packets (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,845) have been available for years. However, it seems that adoption of this technology has been limited by several factors. First, oxygen absorption packets are not typically sold in stores where food is present. For this purpose, convenient packaging with a long shelf life is needed. Related to this, oxygen absorption packets would need to be packaged in small numbers, as the common practice of including 20-50 in a common oxygen-isolating package requires consumers to either use all at once or undertake inconvenient steps to store the remainder. Further, an oxygen-impermeable container of appropriate size is necessary. Finally, significant adoption will require the product to be both easy to use and easy to understand.
To address these issues, a new, easy-to-use, flexible bag design has been created that contains an oxygen removing material. It is hoped that this invention can provide consumers with a more convenient method to prevent mold growth and keep food fresh longer.